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- Flex PCB Boards and Connectors
- About RA Copper and ED Copper
- Introduction of Flexible PCB
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- Advantages of FPC (Flexible PCB)
- Evolution of the Flex Printed Circuit Board
- Benefits of Using Flex Circuit Boards
- Why Rigid-Flex PCBs are Economical?
- Flexible PCB vs Rigid PCB
- Development of Flexible printed circuit board (FPC) market
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- About Flex PCB design
- About Flex PCB and Assembly
- How to Ensure Flex PCB Design Success
- How to Select the Appropriate FPC Materials?
- The Differences In Rigid PCB, Flex PCB and Rigid-Flex PCB
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- About ENIG and ENEPIG
- PCB Surface Finish Comparison
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- PCB Assembly Blog
- FPC Research Blog
The base material for FPC is FCCL and the structures are Copper +PI, Copper + AD + PI, Copper + PI +Copper or Copper + AD + PI + AD + Copper.
Originally, copper is very key for the flex circuits material. Which kind of copper we could choose? The answer is ED Copper (Electrodeposited Copper Foil) and RA copper (Rolled Annealed Copper Foil). Then what the difference between these two? I will show it from below 4 aspects:
1. Definition & Manufacturing Method
Different copper is defined by its manufacturing method. ED Copper, which is made from CuSO4 solution, by using electrolysis method, made Cu2+ dip into spinning cathode rolls and stripping, then made it into ED copper. RA Copper, which is made from high purity copper(>99.98%), by using pressure process, made copper into different copper thickness.
2. Form
ED Copper (Electrodeposited Copper Foil) and RA Cooper (Rolled Annealed Copper Foil)
3. Performance
Due to different manufacturing methods and different shapes, the performance of them is not same. ED copper has better conductivity than RA copper. While as for extensibility, RA copper is much better than ED copper.
4. Application
Because of different performances, RA copper and ED copper are used in different products which tend to different product requests. Normally, ED copper is always used for static application and RA copper is always used in dynamic application. For example, the flex board needs to be bendable a lot, so obviously, RA copper will be a good choice. Otherwise, we could use ED copper with high electrical conductivity. Whatever, you should select copper according to your circuits' requests (final board performance, cost, function...)
